1110 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 
declared that their apparent inability to do the work of the school 
proceeded rather from laziness than from mental deficiency, 
preferring to charge them with moral rather than with intellectual 
defects. Some of the wealthier parents withdrew their children 
from the ordinary schools and gave them private instruction at 
home. Such instruction, even under a skilled master, always 
proved unsuccessful, as both teacher and pupil became more and 
more conscious of the difficulty of bridging over the great gulf 
that separated them intellectually one from another ; and the 
pupil had not the stimulus of competition, nor the sympathy 
with fellow-workers—two powerful spurs to work in the school 
life. Experience has taught the parents wisdom, and in 1892, 
when the Town Council of Hanover decided to open one of these 
schools, Dr. Wehrhahu, the head inspector, received sixty-three 
applications for admission. From a desire to economise, and as 
these schools are for the most part free, or charge very low fees, 
each town is limited to one such institution. The schools, there- 
fore, have to be mixed schools, as intellectual incapacity is not 
limited to one sex. Throughout Germany there is a holy horror 
of allowing boys and girls to be educated together—a horror so 
deep-seated that only the consideration of economy can dispel 
it. The girls never attain to as great proficiency as the boys, 
but the latter always form by far the larger proportion of 
the school. From motives of economy, also, one school serves 
for all ranks of society, and a boy from the Gy mnasium works side 
by side with boys from the Volk-schule, reminding us forcibly 
of the medizval system in the monastic schools. 
Eight years are spent in the school—from 8 to 16—and 
during these years the moral, physical, and intellectual improve- 
ment of the scholars is very marked. Children, who come at 8 
years of age, looking upon their teachers as tyrants, and their 
schoolmates as teasing tormenters, leave with reluctance at 16 
having learned to be obedient and self respecting. The “hope of 
opening out the mysterious infinite has dawned upon them with 
this wakening of love for working.” ‘The effectiveness of the 
work of these schools is best ascertained by an inspection of the 
children in the lowest, and a comparison with those in the highest 
class. In the lowest class the children are often ragged and dirty 
(they have not yet learned to be self-respecting), dogged, obstinate, 
and defiant ; some of them wear a hang-dog look, due to the 
blame or ridicule to which they have been exposed in the public 
schools ; but even at this stage their faces readily brighten in 
response to kindness or praise. The curious rhythmic fidgeting, 
very different from the restlessness due to the suppressed spon- 
taneity of a healthy child, and the vacant stare observable in the 
lowest class, are replaced in the highest by briskness, hopefulness, 
energy, and self-confidence. Had these children remained in the 
